We left La Paz bound for Coroico, a small village 100kms
north of La Paz, via what has become known as ‘The Most Dangerous Road in the
World’ or ‘The Death Road’. The road is now less dangerous as the road is only really
used for tourists doing mountain bike tours and the odd motorcycle. A new
highway was built about 9 years ago that now by basses this road. Before this
however this was the only way into the Yungas from La Paz.

The road was built back in the 1930’s by Paraguayan
prisoners caught in the war between Bolivia and Paraguay. The width of the road
ranges from 2.9m to 3.5m with sheer vertical drops ranging in height from 280m
to 800m. It is also the only road in Bolivia where you drive on the left hand
side and you have to giveway to traffic heading up the mountain. When the road
was open to all traffic before the new highway was built, there were numerous
accidents with as many as 200 – 300 people losing their lives each year. Hence
why it became known as The Death Road. But as I mentioned, the road now has
many guard barriers and is mainly open to descending traffic, however we did
just hear that a mountain bike guide was killed just the other day after a head
on Collision with a car coming up the mountain.

As we dropped down from La Cumbre at about 4700m we
descended into one big cloud filling the valley. It started with just a bit of
cloud but the further we descended we became completely engulfed in thick fog to
the point that we could not see more than 10m in front of us, it became very
cold and quite wet at that point. We made it to the turn off for The Death Road
where we ran into at least 3 mountain bike tour companies who were about to
descend into the abyss. We quickly took some photos and shot off ahead off them
as to not get caught up with them all the way down to the town of Yolosa at
1200m, which marks the end of the road.

As we made our way down the wet and muddy road a feeling of
disappointment rushed through me. I had known about this road for years and
know how perilous it is and how well known it is for the sheer vertical drops
lining the roadside... and all I could see was cloud. A complete whiteout
everywhere we looked but as we descended the eeriness of it all took over and I
took it for all that it was worth. Along the road we also came along a few
waterfalls that actually fall down onto the road, it is in this particular
location where many lives have been lost. The road is narrow and with water
falling constantly on the edge of the road and the weight of a vehicle passing
by on the edge it has been known to collapse and take many lives. All along the
road side are crosses and memorials to all the people who have lost their
lives. A somber reminder to all that travel this road.

As we slowly descended out of the cloud we were greeted with
extensive views of the beautiful lush green valleys of the Yungas. We hoped
that we had left the cyclists behind but each time we stopped to take photos
they would catch up to us. Well at least we had the engine between our legs to
pass them over and over, however it made it harder to get good footage to make
another short film. The further down the mountain the temperature started to
rise and we were looking forward to hanging out around here for a few days.
Towards the bottom of the hill the road became a lot less dangerous and the
vertical drops of the road side became smaller and smaller. The road became
dusty and we arrived safe and sound at the bottom in the village of Yolosa. To
be honest, I was never scared of this road. We have ridden many more dangerous
roads in Bolivia and other countries such as Nepal. I was however very happy to
have had the chance to ride it anyway. We watched the hordes of tourists load
their bikes back onto the roofs of the buses before we took off to our next
destination of Coroico. We had heard good things about this place but as we
arrived the town looked a little run
down and in need of some TLC. We rode around looking for a place to stay and
finally decided on a cheap little place just up from the plaza. What the town
lacks in good looks is completely made up for in surrounding beauty. The town
sits high overlooking numerous valleys with incredible views back up towards
The Death Road and also the new highway and numerous mountains lurking behind
in the distance.

We decided to stay a few days after all. It was my birthday
while we were here and with not many other large towns around, this would be the
best place to celebrate. Our days were spent lazing around town, taking in the
scenery and also sadly watching Australia be defeated by the Netherlands in the
world cup and in all places we watched the game in a Dutch run bar!

The day of my birthday was kicked off just right with
breakfast in bed, then we looked outside and found the entire town engulfed in
one big cloud, looked like I had been a bad boy with weather like this. Luckily
as the day warmed up, the clouds separated and we were off for some zip lining
(flying fox) fun across the valleys. We got a lift in one of the local mini
buses for the very rough 20 min drive back to Yolosa where we would take
another vehicle up to the start of the the Zip line. There are 3 lines in total
measuring a distance of 1555m, at heights up to 250m above the ground and of
speeds up to 85km p/h. I Can’t remember the last time I went on one of these
but it was definitely not this long, high or fast. The zip line passes over the
last bit of the death road before Yolosa and a large river that many locals are
trying to find their fortune in as it is meant to be rich in gold in this
region. It was great fun but the down side was that it was over way too
quickly. Would have loved to have had another go but with our ever diminishing
bank account we have to watch what we spend. Time to head back to town for a
few beers instead.

While waiting a very long time for a minivan to take us back
up the steep and bumby road back to Coroico we got chatting to a local coca
farmer. At first we were speaking Spanish to him and then all of a sudden the young
guy breaks out speaking to us in perfect English, not something you find
everyday in Bolivia especially in small villages. He openly talked about coca
production in the area and how much he earned per kilo, he also basically told
us that all the coca produced in the area would go on to be turned into
cocaine. As far as I am led to believe that for all the coca produced in
Bolivia 60% will be used for the manufacture of cocaine.

My birthday ended with more beer and pizza, but nothing too
rowdy as we had decided that if the weather was good we should go do The Death
Road again. The following day did not disappointing, the sun was shining and
there was not too much cloud about. We hit the road early to make sure we would
be in front of the mountain bikers. Halfway up the new highway however I
managed to get another puncture, again on the front tyre! Again Sanne was not
looking in her mirrors and left me behind again to change my tube by myself. Sometime
later she realised and came back looking for me fearing the worst, that I had
been in an accident, no just the usual flat tyre! In no time we were up and
running and sitting at the top of The Death Road, this time with not a tour bus
or mountain biker in sight, YES! Also the road and valley was clear of fog and
we were off again. The enormity of the depth of the valleys never really became
apparent until we were here second time round with clear skies! The riding was
easier as it was not so wet and also the filming was more possible as there
seemed to be nobody else on the road except for us. We did pass a few nutters
on mountain bikes who for some reason were riding UP the death road. That is
one tough slog!

We managed to get some really awesome pictures second time
round and found we made our way down much quicker also. As a motorcyclist in
Bolivia we are exempt from paying road tolls, except on The Death Road where there
is a 25bob ($4) charge to use the road which is only paid by tourists to keep the
upgrade of the road. With the barriers in place to save lives we found this to
be less dangerous than previous roads we have ridden but good fun all the same.

With time still to kill awaiting the arrival of Sanne’s new
passport we left the valleys and jungle of the Yungas behind and made our way
for Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America.

Looking down the valley towards the Yungas from La Cumbre pass

The sign says it all

Our first time down we were engulfed in a thick cloud

Looking into the abyss, chicken dance style

If the thick fog didn't make it feel eerie enough, the many crosses definitely did

The point of the road where most deaths have occurred

Finally a view of the valley

The town of Coroico

Beautiful and lush and thankfully a little warmer for us

One happy birthday boy, one not so happy worker!

Flying fool

Another happy punter, and a still unhappy worker!

Locals attempting to strike it rich panning for gold in the river

Second time round on the death road and this time we had perfect weather

This time we could actually see what we were riding

There are still the odd few trucks that make it down the old road, but not a lot of space to pass these guys

Sanne being brave and taking in the scenery of the valley

That's me trying to be brave

There is a few waterfalls by the road and this is where most accidents happen

Not an easy place to be building a road in the steep mountain sides

An incredible view from Coroico. Overlooking the new highway in the centre and the death road running up the left valley

Thursday, 26 June 2014

We entered La Paz from the north via El
Cumbre at 4700mand descended into
the steep valley that La Paz sits in at 3660m. It is a city of gothic
proportions and it is an impressive sight to see this giant sprawl with the
medieval-looking buildings sitting haphazardly on the steep slopes while to the
south snow-peaked mountain Illimani (6402m) watches over the city.

It was a Sunday afternoon and the city was
surprisingly quiet. That combined with our new Polish aquaintances’ GPS meant
that we found our hotel super easy, but even without GPS it would have been pretty
easy. I have definitely ridden in far worse cities before.

We checked in to Residencial Sucre which is
a nice and central hotel located on Plaza San Pedro right across from the San
Pedro prison which was made famous in the book Marching Powder. The owner of the hotel, and older man, is super
nice and let us park the bikes right in the foyer. With our two bikes caked in
dust from our ride and the Polish guys’ bike caked in mud from their ride, I
was surprised he let us take them inside, but no problem at all. We met up with
the guys later to go out for dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant, Star of
India, which we had heard was really good, but it was overpriced and the food
was pretty ordinary. I have found that, especially here in Bolivia, whenever I
go to more expensive restaurants and restaurants caterering to gringos, the
food is usually really ordinary. However, when I go toa local market or small local restaurant and
eat a $2 meal it is super tasty and I walk away from there satisfied. And
anyway, I much prefer to eat my food in the company of locals than with
gringos. Lunch (almuerzo) is the biggest meal here in Bolivia and even in the
smallest towns here, we have been able to get something without meat
(althoughwe have to help them along a
bit by suggesting what they can serve for us, if you simply ask for ‘algo sin
carne’ = ‘something without meat’ – you’re sure to get a No!)

Monday morning the first thing on our
agenda was to go to the Danish Embassy to hand in my application for a new
passport. After 3 years of travel I have collected a huge amount of stamps from
various countries, non the least from crossing the Chile-Argentina border
numerous times, and am now completely out of blank pages. In the email
correspondence I had had with the embassy, they told me it would be an
approximately 10-12 day turn-around to get a new passport. Then when I was
there I was told that it can take up to 3-4 weeks! I told them that I only have
limited time left on my Bolivian visa and really would appreciate it if it
could be done faster. So they put ‘urgent’ on the application and sent it off.
The passport is being printed in Denmark hence the time, but I really hope I
won’t have to wait 4 weeks! Fingers crossed I won’t have to.

That afternoon Mark and I went on a free
walking tour of the city which was really well worth it. The tour meets every
day at 11am and then at 2pm on Plaza San Pedro and is very popular with
travellers. We usually don’t do touristy stuff like tours and the like but we
thought ‘heck it’s free, why not?’ Well, it was so enjoyable. The two guides, a
young Bolivian gay guy and a young Kiwi girl who now lives in La Paz were so
entertaining and really funny as well. We cracked up several times of the guy’s
stories of how flirting works in Bolivia (apparently Bolivian men like a nice,
brown, juicy calf of a woman) and of how he fancies Prince Harry! They started
of telling us about the San Pedro prison, which is unique in the way that it is
run almost entirely by the prisoners themselves. Inside the walls, it is its
own community with even families living there including children. Each prisoner
has to actually pay for their room in the prison and the more money you’ve got,
well, the more comfortable digs you can buy; there are prisoners in there who
live in appartments with jacuzzis,; on the other end of the scale the have-nots
have to share a room with maybe 10-20 other prisoners with only a soddy
mattress on the hard floor to sleep on.

You can also conduct business in there,
again if you have money you can rent additional space to open up a restaurant
(of which there are several inside the prison) or you can continue doing
whatever you were doing on the outside, there are shoemakers, hairdressers,
dentists and doctors in there – all prisoners themselves. About 80% of the
inmates are there for drug-related crimes, but hey, don’t let prison get in the
way of that! So cocaine production is thriving inside the walls. In fact rumour
has it that it is the purest cocaine in Bolivia. We were told that whenever a
batch is ready, it gets hurled out of the prison roof and right into the arms
of their contact on the outside who is waiting on the street. Definitely not
your average run-of-the-mill prison! The building which was once a monastery
was only built to house 500 people max. At the moment, 2500 souls live in
there. It is an incredibly cheap prison for the government to run as the only
expense is the wages of the guards on the outside. The inside guards are
prisoners and everything else, people have to pay for themselves.

We were told
that the minimum sentence for drug possesion is 8 years, and in Bolivia you’re
not ‘innocent until proven guilty’ but the other way around. The judicial
system here is also not the fastest, so it might very well be a few years
before your case makes it to court, all the while you’re stuck in for example
San Pedro prison. Then when you finally get sentenced to say 8 years, the time
you have already done, does not get subtracted from that, so you have to do 8
years from that moment on, even though you have already been in prison for 3
years! Not fair? Well, that’s life in many aspects of Bolivian society.

The nearby Rodrigues markets is a massive
market that stretches for 12 or so blocks where you can find everything from
apples and onions to lap tops and stolen goods. We managed to find a cheap
external harddrive there as someone (not
mentioning any names Mark) broke ours
in Sucre and hence all our gopro footage from South America is gone. We need a
new internal part of the harddrive replaced, a part they don’t have in Bolivia
but we’ve been told that it can be done in more developed countried like
Australia so here’s hoping!

Another more interesting market in La Paz is The Witches Markets. There you can
find herbal and folk remedies for curing everything from headaches to
impotence, powder to put a spell on people, oh and llama fetuses! The fetuses
are used as an offering to Pachamama (Mother Earth) for when people build a new
house. The fetus is burried underneath the foundations of the building. Now,
that’s the offering for a small house...if you’re constructing let’s say a multi-story
building, well, Pachamama wants something bigger than a small llama fetus,
something like...an actual person! Yes, tradition is to find a homeless person,
get him stupidly drunk on a drink that is spiked, kidnap him and bring him to
the building site after which you bury him under the foundations. Nice, huh? Although
no one will ever admit to doing this, everyone usually knows someone who knows
someone...

While we were in La Paz we took the new
cable car that just opened earlier this year to El Alto. El Alto is a city that
sits right above La Paz at 4100m and from there you get a great view over all
of La Paz. It is really cold and windy up there and not a particularly nice
area as it’s very poor (and a little dangerous apparently). They have a huge
market up here on Thursdays and Sundays and as it was a Thursday we wandered
around the market where you can buy all sorts of things like parts for cars like
diffs, brake calipers, carburettors right next to bananas and shoes. They love
markets in Bolivia.

We were incredibly lucky to be in La Paz to
experience the annual festival of La Fiesta del Gran Poder. El Gran Poder is one of, if not THE
most important festival in Bolivia throughout the year. During this festival, which is a homage to Nuestro Señor del Gran Poder (Our Lord of Great Power) tens of thousands of people parade through the streets
dancing and playing music.The sight of grown adults dressed in outrageous costumes, drinking and
dancing their way through the city could seem like an odd form of religious
devotion, but the participants (and spectators) don´t seem to see any contradiction in
combining the sincere expression of religious belief with a riotous
party – indeed the act of dancing nonstop for several hours at high
altitude in a heavy costume can be seen as an exhausting form of
devotional sacrifice! It was nothing less than spectacular to watch and a great experience.

The Sunday before we left, we again
ventured up to El Alto, this time to watch the spectacle that is: Cholita
Wrestling. Yep, Bolivian ladies who wrestle! Oh my god, was it entertaining!
Incredibly amateurish but...entertaining. The ladies come into the ring wearing
their traditional big skirts and bowler hats and then proceed to “pretend” to
kick each others arses. There are male wrestlers as well, one was dressed as a
clown and another was acting totally queer and was kissing on all the other
male wrestlers, even the referee! How can I best explain this Bolivian
wrestling? Imagine American wrestling D-grade and you might get the picture.
The locals were getting really into it, heckling the fighters and hurling stuff
into the ring like oranges and rubbish. Afterwards we were able to jump into
the ring and pose for photos with the cholitas which was fun. Definitely a
worthwhile experience to be had while in La Paz, if for nothing else than for
the bizarre factor!

We enjoyed La Paz and felt safe there,
despite the fact that it is known as one of the most dangerous cities in South
America and we found the people here to be just as friendly as in the rest of
Bolivia. As I was still waiting for my new passport to arrive, we decided to leave
the city and tour around the Yungas and Lake Titicaca in the meantime, but we
would return to the big smoke after that.

Women gathering on Plaza San Pedro, in front of the famous San Pedro prison

Llama foetuses...a bizarre sight

Just like christmas decorations!

Plaza San Francisco and San Francisco Cathedral

At Mercado Lanza, the main food market in La Paz,

at one of the many hole-in-the-wall almuerzo (lunch) restaurants

A shoe polisher at work - this is considered the lowest profession in Bolivia, hence why you see many of them wearing a mask to cover their faces, so no one will recognise them

Saw this fellow strung up on a lightpole in El Alto - it says:

´Thief who is caught will be lynched and burned alive´... Consider yourself warned!

Overlooking La Paz from El Alto - mountain Illimani in the background

Selfie time!

The cable car that takes you from La Paz to El Alto

Welcome to the extravaganza that is El Gran Poder!

The outfits were nothing less than spectacular!

Lots of smiles from Cholitas!

And lots of lady legs!

That´s a bit cheeky...

A very traditional Bolivian indigenous outfit

They say you shouldn´t judge someone until you´ve walked a mile in their shoes...

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About Me

Welcome to Handful Of Throttle!
We are Mark & Sanne - an Australian/Danish couple who for 4 years from 2011-2015 travelled around the world on our Suzuki DRZ 400 motorbikes. We started the trip in March 2011 in Perth, Australia, rode overland through Asia to Europe, shipped our bikes to Argentina and rode all over South America for over a year. We then rode the final leg of the trip through the Southern states of the US from Florida to California. This is our blog.
If you would like to contact us, feel free to email us on:
sannedynamite@gmail.com
or
manicmark8@gmail.com